Mother Of Head Start Student Claims She Wasn't Told About Lead In Water
ARVADA, Colo. (CBS4) – The Jefferson County Head Start preschool in Arvada has more than 12 times the level of lead allowed in the water. Final test results announced on Friday showed a lead result of 180 parts per billion.
The Environmental Protection Agency's "action level" for lead is 15 parts per billion. The action level is a threshold requiring additional testing, monitoring, and remediation.
CBS4's Melissa Garcia spoke with the mother of one preschooler who was not happy with how the school was handling the situation.
Amber Bailey said that her 5-year-old son was sent home from school with a letter on Monday, days before kids were ever sent home from school due to lead.
The letter stated that her son needed to get a lead test from his pediatrician by the end of the month.
Now Bailey wonders if the school knew what was in the water all along.
"If I didn't watch the news, I would still send him to school Monday thinking that it was just a water leak," said Bailey.
Bailey said that the school informed her on Wednesday that the school was shutting down due to a water leak.The head start program remained closed on Thursday and Friday.
Staff posted signs on the door stated school was cancelled due to "water line issues."
According to Bailey, it wasn't until the next day when she found out that the school had actually shut down due to lead in the water.
Exposure to lead can cause devastating health effects, especially in young children.
"I was just really upset that if they may have known about it in March, I just feel that as a parent, I should have been notified right away," Bailey said.
As early as March 3, school staff noticed that the water was discolored and tasted funny. Three weeks later, on March 28, a sample was taken for testing.
Results show that the water has 12 times more lead than allowed.
Health department officials were doing more water testing to find out just how much lead is in the water and exactly where the lead is coming from.
"We took action right away," said Jim Rada of the Jefferson County Public Health Department. "We decided to do additional sampling. In fact, over 60 samples were collected from the distribution system in the school today, as well as upstream and downstream on the Arvada water main."
Workers brought in bottled water to the school on Friday. School officials planned to re-open the Head Start program on Monday.
Officials also expected the additional test results to come back on Monday.
Melissa Garcia has been reporting for CBS4 News since March 2014. Find her bio here, follow her on Twitter @MelissaGarciaTV, or send your story idea to mkgarcia@cbs.com.